Review: Circus of Scales by Constance Roberts

Title: Circus of Scales
Author: Constance Roberts
Series: The Dragon Sanctum #1
Publication: March 3rd 2020
Genre: Fantasy
Purchase it on: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo
Rating: 3.5/5★

Ivy and her dragon familiar, Celestia, are bound to the Circus of Scales. People flock from all over the Emerald Continent to watch the pair's death defying act.

With the threat of dragon hunters lurking in every town, Ivy knows the circus is the safest place for her beloved dragon. Still, Ivy wishes she could give Celestia the freedom a magnificent creature deserves - instead of having to endure the cruel harvesting of her magic as well as other abuses at the hands of the circus ringmaster.

When Celestia is kidnapped, Ivy risks everything to rescue her. After discovering the handsome outlaw's true intentions, Ivy is taken to a place no one will ever find her. The farther she gets from the circus, the harder it is to see where the real danger lies.

Circus of Scales is the first novella in The Dragon Sanctum series. Don’t miss book two, Isle of Dragons, coming May 2020!

This was a fun read! I love fantasy and I love dragons so a story about a dragon tamer and her dragon in a circus was something that I liked reading about. It all reminded me a bit of How To Train Your Dragon and I love those movies so this was a very good thing.

Although there were some things in the story that I saw coming, the story in its own often went into surprising ways. I really liked the main character Ivy and her bond with her dragon Celestia. It was very clear that she loves the dragon very much and would do anything to protect her. And now I want a dragon too. *cries* 

The dragons were obviously the best part of the story. There were so many different ones, different breeds in different colors. I also loved the setting very much. Even though dragons are exploited in this fantasy world, it did seem like a beautiful and magical world. I'd love to know more about it.

As much as adored Ivy, the setting and all the dragons, when it came to the conversations between characters it felt a little clunky. This wasn't that much of a deal breaker to me but I still felt it wasn't quite the four star book that it could've been. The dash of romance that was there also couldn't hook me that much but I know of myself that I'm hard to please when it comes to that so it wasn't that important to me in the end. 

I do have to say that the descriptions of everything were really quite beautiful and I loved those. So sure there were some flaws but I hope it won't stop anyone from picking this book up because it did have a lot of good things going in the story. Do it for the dragons! 

Overall, Circus of Scales was a quick-to-read and exciting novella with How To Train Your Dragon vibes that was very hard to put down. I'm looking forward to the next part! 

About the author:
Constance Roberts is a retired flight attendant who turned in her wings to stay at home with her adventurous daughter and to write. She and her husband live in St. Louis, Missouri where they spend the weekends playing board games with friends. She spends way too much time on Pinterest and her house is littered with half-finished craft projects. She is currently working on three titles at once, and has big plans for another fantasy series.
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